Welcome to AltaHandcrafted.com!

Welcome to AltaHandcrafted.com! Thank you for stopping by and I hope you will return again and again. My name is Amanda Gries and I am a ninth generation native Californian, and a descendent of the founders of the city of Los Angeles. I’ve become increasingly interested in my ancestral ties, and through researching my heritage and the history of Alta California, I’ve embarked on an incredible journey of self-discovery and purpose. I studied ceramic sculpture at the Center for Ceramic Arts at California State University, Long Beach, and later, apparel design at Los Angeles Trade Tech. Additionally, I am an avid crafter, a passionate cook, a mother to two wonderful boys, and wife to a second generation native Californian. Creating this site started out as a project to house my own online crafting workshops, and has expanded into serving a much deeper purpose. I’ve created AltaHandcrafted.com as a container dedicated to sharing my journey of self-discovery, stories of my family’s history in California, my online crafting workshops, a curated selection of Featured Artisans creating incredible handcrafted goods in California, my favorite family recipes, and so much more! I hope you enjoy AltaHandcrafted.com as much as I do! ~Amanda